


Runaway Bride

by Whirlwind



Category: Stitchers (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/M, Weddings, camsten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 13:50:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4837601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whirlwind/pseuds/Whirlwind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. When Kirsten Clark runs out on her wedding, unsuspecting bystander Cameron gets roped into helping her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Runaway Bride

**Author's Note:**

> There's not alot of AU stories in this fandom, so I've been playing around with some AU fic ideas for while now and finally managed to write and finish one. I hope you guys like it.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon as Cameron drove down the sunny streets of California. He was driving home when suddenly a squirrel darted across the road in front of him, causing him to slam down hard on his brakes. Halting to a screeching stop right in front of a church, he just narrowly managed to avoid missing the creature.

He let out a huge relieved sigh and took a moment to calm his nerves. It was then that his passenger door suddenly opened and a young woman with blonde hair, wearing a white dress, crawled into the seat of his convertible.

"Drive." She instructed calmly. Cameron turned to look at her, eyes wide with confusion and disbelief. Had this strange woman really have just climbed into his car and demanded him to drive? She didn't appear to be armed in anyway, so that was a relief. "What?" He finally managed to ask, as he tried to process what was going on. Briefly, she looked back over her shoulder towards the church. "Drive." The woman repeated again, a bit more urgently this time.

Cameron grumbled and gripped his fingers around the leather steering wheel. "I swear, if you just robbed some place or participated in some other illegal activity..."

The blonde shoots him a pointed look. "In a wedding dress?"

"It could happen..." He mutters sheepishly, sinking down slightly into his seat and putting his foot on the gas pedal.

As the vehicle starts moving, he sees her body relax somewhat and then she stares out the window, watching the trees blur by. Stealing glances over at her, he finds that even though she seems a bit abrasive, she appears fairly harmless.

"So, Runaway Bride, what's your story?" Cameron asks her curiously, as he comes to a stoplight.

"No story. Just didn't want to get married." She answers apathetically with a shrug of her shoulders.

Cameron quickly realizes getting a straight answer out of this girl is going to be like pulling teeth. Nevertheless, he stares at her expectantly, waiting for her to elaborate further. When she doesn't budge on the matter, he let's out a loud impatient sigh.

"Do you at least have a _name_?" He asks, frustrated by the lack of communication occurring here.

"Kirsten." The blonde answers simply.

"I'm Cameron."

She nods and makes a noise of acknowledgement, but says nothing else and returns her attention back to the window. The light turns green and the car proceeds forward as before.

He has absolutely no idea what to make of her, she's a complete conundrum. Feeling like he's fighting a losing battle of trying to get her to talk, he decides to just drive and see what happens from there.

"I didn't love him." The young woman finally says after a long lull of silence, much to his surprise. She then adds, "I've never loved anyone. I don't even think I'm capable of it."

Her critical opinion of herself catches Cameron off guard, and he turns to look at her. "Everyone is capable of love."

She shakes her head, causing her blonde hair to fall onto the front her shoulders. "I have temporal dysplasia, a condition where I have no concept of time and can't adequately process or feel emotions."

It wasn't a common condition, it was extremely rare actually, but he had heard of it before, especially given the fact his field of study was neuroscience. There wasn't a lot known about it, it was only fairly recently discovered about 20-some-odd years ago.

"Isn't there anything that can be done for it?" He asks sympathetically.

The blonde gives an uncertain shrug. "Some doctors think it might fade over time, some say that maybe a person or an experience could possibly trigger something that helps reopen the emotional path ways in the brain, others think that there's nothing that can be done. Nobody really knows."

Cameron frowned, he knew from past experience how frustrating it was to have doctors with such varying opinions on a condition. When he needed to have a heart valve replaced as a kid, they told him all sorts of percentages on what his survival rate would be. Which made it difficult to decide who to believe.

"I'm sorry." Cameron tells her sincerely.

She bobs her head. "I'm used to it."

He thinks about what she said and a question pops into his mind. "But if you didn't love him why did you agree to marry him?"

She lets a heavy sigh and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "My guardian, Ed, he used to read me all these fairytales as a kid. And at the end they would always get married and live happily ever after. I thought if I got married, maybe I'd finally know what **happy** felt like."

Cameron feels a deep ache in chest at her confession. He can't even imagine what it must be like to go your entire life not being able to feel emotions. Sure the idea of never feeling sad seemed like a nice premise, but not at the cost of never knowing what joy felt like either. He wants to pat her on the arm or comfort her in someway, but feels like he might be overstepping his bounds if he does. Not to mention, he's not sure if she'd understand the gesture.

Deciding to change gears a bit, he asks. "So, did you have somewhere in mind you wanted me to take you?"

Kirsten's eyebrows raise up slightly, she had forgotten about that. She mulls it over. "I can't exactly go back to my place, it's the first place he'd look for me anyway." When she ran out of the church she hadn't planned quite this far ahead.

"I can take you to my apartment." Cameron suggests. "I was headed there anyway."

Kirsten stares at the young man, carefully analyzing him. He's a complete stranger to her and yet for some reason, she feels the strange urge to trust him. After a moment, she gives him an affirmative nod.

There's a comfortable silence between them as he Cameron drives to his apartment. But at some point the young woman starts rubbing the sides of her bare arms, feeling the chill of the wind.

Catching sight of this, Cameron reaches into his backseat and grabs a navy blue hoodie, offering it to her. "Here." She hesitates at first but then takes it and pulls it over her wedding dress. Her arms quickly start to warm up, and she catches the faint hint of his cologne as she breathes in.

It's not long before they arrive and they make their way up the elevator and into his apartment. As he opens the door, Kirsten glances around the place and takes it all in. Taking a step inside, her shoe catches slightly on the bottom of her dress, causing her to stumble slightly. Cameron quickly reaches out to steady her.

Realizing she can't really maneuver around wearing a wedding dress, he comes up with an idea. "I'll grab you some clothes that you can borrow." Kirsten nods appreciatively and Cameron heads into his bedroom. Rummaging through his dresser drawer, he pulls out a shirt and a pair of shorts for her to wear.

She goes into the room to change and he waits outside. A couple of minutes later the door opens again and he can't help the smile that spreads across his face when she comes out. Though a bit baggy in places, his clothes fit her rather well because they're both so tall. They look cute on her, and he tries to fight off the blush that is trying to creep it's way onto his cheeks.

Cameron heads into the kitchen and offers her a drink, she follows him and accepts the bottle of water he offers to her. Unscrewing the cap, she takes a sip.

It's then that Cameron hears a loud knock at his apartment door. He isn't expecting anyone, so he finds it a tad strange, but then chocks it up to it probably being one of his neighbors. When he opens it however, he finds a tall muscular man he doesn't recognize standing on the other side. "Can I help you?" Cameron asks.

The man is about to say something, but stops when he suddenly catches sight of the blonde in the apartment.

"Liam?" Cameron hears Kirsten say behind him from the kitchen. "What are you doing here?"

The man known as Liam narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. "I could ask you the same thing." He says harshly, his english accent thick.

Cameron can feel the anger emitting off this guy and he quickly pieces two and two together that this was the man Kirsten was supposed to marry. This guy looks like he just walked off the cover of a GQ catalogue and Cameron can't help but feel insecure in comparison.

Liam takes a step forward, but when he sees what Kirsten's wearing, Cameron's clothes, his anger only increases two fold. Kirsten, who appears rather unfazed, holds her ground. "I already told you Liam, I just don't want to get married."

The man shakes his head. "When you ran off I thought you just had cold feet, but it turns out you left me at the alter for **_this_** guy? For this, this **_nerd_**?" He gestures over to Cameron, and a sour expression makes its way on to his face at the insult. "I really don't think the name calling is necessary..." He mutters quietly, before trying to explain. "Look, you have this all wrong, all that happened was-" The next thing Cameron knows, the man is decking him across the face, sending him sailing down into his wooden apartment floor with a loud thud. His hand flies up to clutch the side of his face, wincing in pain at the touch. Kirsten immediately drops down to her knees beside him, helping him sit up. She then stares up at Liam and glowers at him. "Get out."

He looks at her with sheer disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Kirsten doesn't falter in the slightest. "He had nothing to do with this, all he did was help me. Me leaving you at the alter was my choice, and considering this little stunt, I'm more certain about my choice than ever. Now get out."

The man is partially stunned but after getting his bearings, storms out of the apartment.

After Liam leaves, Kirsten helps Cameron to his feet and they start to tend to his now slowly blackening eye.

"I'm really sorry about all of this." Kirsten tells him as she takes the frozen bag of peas and holds it up to his eye. He can tell she genuinely means that.

"Eh, I'm used to it. I'll have you know I'm quite the fighter." He wiggles his eyebrows slightly. "I was just caught off guard this time, that's all."

Kirsten doesn't believe him for a minute and can't help but laugh at his terrible attempt at bravado.

Cameron then looks at her in a way she doesn't understand. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She asks him curiously, her head titled slightly to the side. He shakes his head, "It's just that... this is the first time I've seen you smile. It's nice." She brings her hand up to touch the corner of her mouth, unaware that she had been smiling. Briefly, she wonders, had she ever really smiled before now?

Cameron's question pulls her out of her thoughts. "So what are you going to do now?" Kirsten shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I left my keys and money at the church and can't exactly go back to get them right now." Who knows who would still be there. She didn't care what those people thought of her, but she did want to avoid another possible confrontation if she could.

"Could I borrow some money to rent a room for the night?" Kirsten asks him.

"How about you just stay here?" Cameron suggests to her. "It would be a lot easier. You take the bed and I'll sleep on the couch."

She frowns slightly. "My ex fiancee just punched you in the face, the least I can do is let you have the bed."

Cameron shakes his head, "Sorry Cupcake, I'm too much of a gentleman to make you sleep on the sofa."

Kirsten ponders it over a minute. "A compromise. We share the bed. I sleep under the covers, you sleep on top."

He looks at her skeptically. "You're okay with that?"

She nods. "Why wouldn't I be?"

And so the two share the bed that night and the next day Cameron drives her to the church to pick up her things and then takes her home.

The two form a quick friendship and Kirsten soon found the more she was around him, that she had begun to start feeling things, things she thought she would never be able to feel. It was like someone had finally turned a light on in a room that had always been dark. Though it did take time to get used, it was a welcome change. They eventually started dating and then wound up getting married.

On their one year wedding anniversary, Cameron gives her a porcelain squirrel statue as a gift. At first Kirsten thinks it's a gag gift, but he goes on to explain it's significance. "The reason I was stopped out in front of that church the day we met was because a squirrel ran across the road and I stopped so I wouldn't hit him. If it wasn't for that squirrel, I may have never met you."

Kirsten now has a new appreciation for squirrels.


End file.
